A Student Affair

For Rutland (Vt.) Junior College, founded 1946, the first three years had been bitterly hard. To begin with, the original $150,000 fund-raising campaign had fallen short by $60,000. Tuitions ($400 a year) failed to bridge the gap. Then the trustees asked the Rutland city council for help. That involved a referendum, but last week it was still a month away, and Rutland's 16-member faculty had not been paid since mid-March. Facing these facts, President Benjamin B. Warfield, a 44-year-old Navy veteran, went to the college books for figures. The college needed at least $10,000 to tide it over until the referendum; it had just $35.70 in the bank. It looked as if Rutland Junior College might have to close down before polling day. But there was one asset in the college till that both Warfield and the trustees had forgotten to count: Rutland's 116 students.

The 116 decided to launch their own fund-raising campaign. The student council called a meeting of the student body, and undergraduate speakers presented the facts. Said Student Council President Louis Salebra, Rutlander and veteran: if the college failed to finish out the year, students who planned to transfer elsewhere for their junior and senior years (and most of them did) might lose an entire year's credits.

Before long, students were jumping up and offering everything from pocket change to folding money. Thirteen pledged $100 apiece or more. One, planning to repair his car, pledged his $100 with a shout of "Goodbye, jalopy!" Within a matter of minutes they had pledged some $2,000, but they weren't through.

Last week they ran a torchlight parade through the streets of Rutland, called on citizens to pitch in. Rutlanders caught the spirit. An automobile dealer, who had agreed to match one undergraduate team's collections, handed over $103; a waitress gave her day's tips of $1.17. Some landladies of student boarding houses offered a month's free rent if the money were given to the college. As the local radio station and newspaper spread the story, more kept pouring in.

Meanwhile, President Warfield had stepped aside as a fundraiser. Said he: "This is a student affair, not a dodge by a bankrupt college trying to bail out the group that put money into it."

At week's end, the undergraduates' campaign had raised $6,373 worth of cash and pledges and the campaign was still going full tilt. There was even a chance that Rutland Junior College would be able to open next September, if enough Rutlanders voted yes in the referendum.

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